A week ago during a time of group prayer, I prayed that God would give me the courage and grace to submit my illness to Him - to lay my doubts, worries, hopes and dreams before him, trusting that He will use them for his own purposes.
Now I find I have to unpack the idea of submission more, in order to live it out day by day.
Submission seems almost counter-intuitive - our culture values independence and individual skill levels so highly, that submission is often seen to be a sign of weakness. However the Bible's view of submission is in stark contrast with this. The Bible tells us that we are not strong enough to stand on our own. We need God to guide us. Biblical submission occurs when we allow God to be our guide.
Three verses appear to be particularly pertinent to my struggles....
Ephesians 5:1-2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1 Corinthians 6: 19 - 20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
When we allow God to be our guide, we trust that He is sovereign and we know that he will guide us safely home.
Now I find I have to unpack the idea of submission more, in order to live it out day by day.
Submission seems almost counter-intuitive - our culture values independence and individual skill levels so highly, that submission is often seen to be a sign of weakness. However the Bible's view of submission is in stark contrast with this. The Bible tells us that we are not strong enough to stand on our own. We need God to guide us. Biblical submission occurs when we allow God to be our guide.
Three verses appear to be particularly pertinent to my struggles....
Ephesians 5:1-2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1 Corinthians 6: 19 - 20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
When we allow God to be our guide, we trust that He is sovereign and we know that he will guide us safely home.
I would like to talk more about this in later posts and would certainly appreciate any comments or advice.
2 comments:
Yet to submit we have to let go of so much we seek sercurity in, and like jumping from one rock to another our feet will have to leave on surface before they land firm on another. I always fear that fall, that it will not end or that I will not land on safe ground but in the ocean in the middle. Yet when I have been given the courage to jump, I have never fallen flat, but always safe in the arms of God. It may feel like falling, but I believe we are carried.
Hey Jill. I agree with you - I think the idea of 'submission' goes totally against what our culture teaches us. Be independent, rely on yourself, etc etc.
We are also taught not to be vulnerable. Don't cry in public, don't do anything embarrassing, don't rely on anyone else or depend too much on others, etc etc.
I think a lot of it is a response to human weakness - we KNOW people let us down, and our culture has built up around protecting ourselves from that. And because we are selfish.
Yet God isn't going to let us down. So submitting to him is a completely different ball game to submitting within our own culture. We have promises from God. Assurances. And He's never reneged on them and never will.
I used to think Christians were weak and needed to dependon God because they didn't have enough confidence in themselves. Now I can see that submission isn't weak - it's strong. It's saying I'm willing to give up my self-focus on give my life over to you God... Oh and as a bonus, you will do a far better job of it than I will!!!
L xx
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